Here Comes Santa Clause

It's Christmas Eve and my favorite time of year. Trading presents, getting to see friends and family, eating lots of good food and watching great Christmas movies. My favorite Christmas movie of all time is The Santa Clause with Tim Allen. It's a movie that I could watch every year and always laugh at the same parts.  This movie goes with this cupcake better than any other cupcake I've ever made could go with a movie! First here is a little video to put a smile on your face!

I got this idea from Hello, Cupcake, but I added a few things to make it my own. For this cupcake you are going to need a regular size cupcake for Santa's body and a mini cupcake for his head.

First, I started with his body because it's a little more simple than his head. I iced the regular sized cupcake with red icing and then dipped it into red decorating sugar. I then got two green gumdrops, put a little icing on the bottom of each one and stuck one on either side of the cupcake to make it look like his hands/mittens. Then I began working on his head. His head will take a little longer and you will need a few more materials. I covered the mini cupcake in icing and began working on his beard which is made out of white gumdrops, and also his hat which is made out of red gumdrops. I rolled the white gumdrops out on a cutting board, and continuously added white decorating sugar to it as I rolled it out because if you don't then it will stick to your rolling pin. I also did this with the red gumdrops but used red decorating sugar so it would blend in. Once I rolled the gumdrops out I cut a beard shape out of the white gumdrops and a Santa's hat shape out of the red gumdrops. I put the gumdrop beard on the cupcake and then added the gumdrop hat (if the gumdrop hat is a little flimsy then stick in the freezer for a few minutes to make it  more stiff). Then I piped icing around the edge of the hat and at the tip of the hat. I added his eyes which are little dots of melting chocolate and his nose which is also melting chocolate. Finally, I iced his cheeks with pink icing and he became Santa Claus.

This is my last blog for the Christmas holiday and then I will be making more cupcake designs to write about. I hope you have enjoyed all these Christmas cupcakes and blogs and thanks so much for reading!

Only 1 more day 'til Christmas!

Merry Christmas!

Candyland

One of my favorite things to do is to go into Yankee Candle and smell all the amazing Christmas candles they have. I have two favorite Christmas candles from there: Mistletoe and Peppermint. I love lighting these candles because it makes the whole room smell amazing. These candles are rather expensive (I definitely don't get them often) so I try to make them last as long as possible. 

These cupcakes are very easy to make and put together. All you need is peppermint, red dye, icing, fondant and of course a cupcake :)

I first mixed the red dye with the icing to get red icing and also mixed the red dye with the fondant to make red fondant. I iced two cupcakes, one with red icing and one with white icing. Then I started cutting the fondant. I cut two circles out of the white fondant and two circles out of the red fondant. One circle of each is a little bigger than the other. I then placed the smaller circle on the larger circle using a little icing to keep it in place. I then took two peppermints and placed each one into the middle of the fondant circles that I made. I then placed this on top of the each cupcake opposite of the color. White fondant on red icing and red fondant on white icing. Like I said these are extremely easy cupcakes so I have faith that you can do this!

Days til' Christmas: 3 days

Trim the Tree

Obviously the love of Christmas ornaments reaches everyone, whether person or animal!

I was asked to make 99 of these ornament cupcakes for workers at the church where my husband works and I was absolutely thrilled. They are such cute cupcakes and I knew people would love to get them as a gift. Who wouldn't want food as a present? :) I knew it was going to take some time to make but I was so thrilled and up for the challenge.

I got the idea for these Ornament cupcakes from the book Hello, Cupcake. I tweaked it a little, but I think they turned out really well. I started off with three different colors of icing: red, green and white. I iced the cupcakes and dipped them into the same color decorating sugar. I found out that it helps the color of the sugar to show up better when you dye the icing the same color as the sugar. Once I was done dipping them in the decorating sugar I then began to work on the white ornaments. I stuck a gumdrop at the top of the cupcake and then I started cutting fruit roll-ups into two different sizes of strips; one thicker than the other. I then put some icing into a baggy and cut the tip of it, and I then squeezed icing on the back of the pieces of the fruit roll up. Then I placed them on the cupcake, the thicker strip in the middle of the smaller ones. Finally, I placed mini yellow and green M&M's on the thick middle line with a dab of icing.

Next I got to work on the green cupcakes. I added the gumdrop to cupcake, but put it more toward the center (but not directly in the center) of the cupcake. Then I began to place mini yellow and red M&M's all over the cupcake. I used at least 7-8 M&M's.

Lastly, I decorated the red cupcakes. I had mixed some yellow fondant and cut it into strips like I did with the fruit roll ups on the white cupcakes. If you use fondant for this part then make sure to roll it out pretty thin. If it's too thick then it won't lay right on the cupcake. Once I cut the strips of yellow fondant I laid them on the cupcake the same way as the white cupcakes. The wider strip in between the two smaller strips. Once the strips were in place I then added red and green mini M&M's to the middle strip.

Now you have 3 fun and different Ornament cupcakes! These may seem a little difficult but you can't mess up, and you should add your own touch to them to make them your own. Your guests will absolutely love these and want to make some themselves :)

Days 'til Christmas: 7

Deck the Halls with Boughs of Holly

We all have certain things that we immediately think of when Christmas comes around. This is one of those classic clips from a movie that defined Christmas for a whole generation, and it's a perfect way to begin this blog about my holly cupcakes.

I know a lot of the cupcakes I make look difficult and can be difficult to recreate, but the holly cupcakes are one of the most simple. One of the nice things about these cupcakes is there is no mixing the icing to get a certain color. I covered the cupcake in whipped vanilla icing. Also, you can make the holly cupcakes with regular size cupcakes or mini cupcakes because it looks cute on either one. I then drew out the templates for the holly leaves making sure that each cupcake got 3 leaves. I used green melting chocolate (you can this at Michael's) and began to go over the templates. When I finished going over the templates I put the leaves in the freezer for about 15 minutes or until they were hard enough to peel off the wax paper. I then peeled them off and put the chocolate leaves on the cupcake all leading to a point in the center of the cupcake. Finally, I used mini M&M's for the berries of the holly and put 3 in the center and then I was done. Like I said, these are very simple so if you are looking for a fun Christmas cupcake that doesn't take a lot of time then these are perfect!


I hope you enjoy this blog and it gets you in the mood to watch A Christmas Story! Merry Christmas!!

Days 'til Christmas: 11 days

All I Want For Christmas

In everything I did, I showed you that by this kind of hard work we must help the weak, remembering the words the Lord Jesus himself said: ‘It is more blessed to give than to receive.'  Acts 20:35

Everybody knows that getting presents is one of the best things about Christmas. The one thing that's even better though is to be able to give them.  There is nothing better than seeing someone's reaction as they open up a surprise at Christmas. This year Ryan (my husband) and I got the chance to give a Christmas gift to someone who otherwise might not have had a Christmas at all through a program called Operation Christmas Child. This program sends gifts to under privileged children around the world. We got to pack a shoe box full of gifts to send along with the message of Jesus. We already can't wait to do it again next year!

In honor of all presents given or received this year I decided to create some "present" cupcakes. I decided to make 4 different present cupcakes. A red present, with a white ribbon, a green present with white ribbon, a white present with red ribbon, and a green present with red ribbon. I first started with the icing and mixed all the colors I needed and covered the cupcakes in icing. Then I began rolling out the fondant. I tried not to roll it out too thin because then the loops on the bows wouldn't stay up very well. I created two piece of equal length fondant and then crossed them on top of the cupcake. Then I started on the bow. I used two more equal lengths of fondant and I looped them both and then pinched them together in the center. Then I took a single shorter piece and wrapped it around the center of the two loops. Finally, I used two more equal lengths of fondant to create the tails of the bow. I made sure to cut the ends to look like ribbon as you can see in the picture. To assemble the bow on the cupcake I first used icing to secure the tails of the bow on the crossed pieces of the fondant. Then I used a little more icing to secure the bow on top of the tails. This might seem a little confusing but you can look at the pictures to follow.

These turned out so cute I almost wanted to put them under our tree, but then I remembered they were just cupcakes :)

Days till Christmas: 17 days

Buddy The Elf

We elves try to stick to the four main food groups: candy, candy canes, candy corn and syrup. 

- Buddy the Elf

So everyone has a favorite Christmas movie. There are plenty to choose from that's for sure. You have The Santa Clause, Rudolph the Red-nosed Reindeer (claymation version), White Christmas, It's A Wonderful Life, Home Alone and many many more. There is only one movie that I think has the best description of an elf and that would be the movie Elf with Will Farrell and Zooey Deschannel. It's my favorite Will Farrell movie and of course it has to do with Christmas which makes any movie good :)

This cupcake was a lot more difficult to make compared to my last one I blogged about. This one has a few more materials that you need and takes a little more of your time. What I do first when making a more difficult cupcake is get everything I need and put it out on the table. That way I don't have to search for it when I need it.

I first iced the cupcake with a light pink icing and then set it aside to work on the hat. They hat is made out of graham crackers but you could also use famous wafer cookies. I warmed up the graham to cut it into two triangle and then put melting chocolate where you want them to stick together. Then I put it in the freezer for a good 15 minutes. As I waited for that to freeze I worked on the face of the Elf. I used white icing with crushed mini m&m's for the eyes, a pink jelly belly for the nose, red icing for the mouth, and pink Laffy Taffy for the ears. Once I was done putting the face together I went back to work on the hat. I cut a rectangle from a green apple airhead for part of the hat. I then stuck two pretzel sticks to the back of the hat with melting chocolate and then returned it to the freezer. The pretzel will help to keep the hat in place on the cupcake. After those were frozen to the graham I then began to ice the hat with leaf green icing. Then I stuck the green airhead to the bottom of the hat and then sprinkled sprinkles on the icing. Once I was done with the hat I simple pushed hat into the cupcake allowing the pretzels to go all the way into the cupcake. It should hold it pretty securely.

Remember to have fun with any cupcake you make. It's great to see the outcome once you are done but even better when you get to eat it :)

Days until Christmas: 21

Let It Snow

Thanksgiving is over and it's time to celebrate Christmas. This month I will be writing all my blogs about  Christmas cupcakes. There will be Elves, Snowflakes, Holly, Ornaments and many more Christmas cupcakes to come. So if you haven't gotten into the Christmas spirit then just read this and it will put you there :)

I want to first start off with a simple cupcake that was fun and easy to make. All you need for this cupcakes is the cupcake itself, icing, blue dye, white melting chocolate and white imperial sprinkles. Like I said, simple, right?

First, I drew snowflake templates on wax paper. You can draw the same ones or you can mix it up and have different templates to make them more unique and that way not everyone gets the same one. Also it makes it more like real snowflakes because not one is the same! I then put them in the freezer while I mixed the icing. I put very little blue dye into the icing to get a light blue color. Once I got the color I wanted I put the icing in a baggy and piped it onto the cupcake. I then pulled the white chocolate snowflake off the wax paper and put it on the cupcake, tilting it to one of the sides. Then I sprinkled some white imperials around it just to add a little something else to it. Like I said, this is a fun but easy cupcake to make and won't take a lot of time.

Just a reminder that we only have 25 days till Christmas!!!

Christmas With Dino

The Holidays have arrived and this is my favorite time of the year. No matter what kind of mood you are in all you have to do is step inside a store and hear that Christmas music playing and it changes the expression on your face every time :)

One of my favorite Christmas CD's is Christmas with Dino (if you don't know who Dino is referencing then you need to look it up). His voice is inviting and intriguing at the same time and just makes me want to relax because he's right, it is the most wonderful time of the year!

I have finally started decorating our apartment with the Christmas theme. I have put up stockings and few little decorations here and there. We have put up the tree and there are plenty of presents under it too. The only thing we are waiting to do is decorate the tree with ornaments. I thought it would be something fun for the family to do together the day after Thanksgiving.

This is year Ryan got the me the cutest ornament! I usually collect reindeer ornaments but this year he thought it would be fun to change it up a little. It is now my favorite ornament because it captures exactly what I LOVE to do and that is make/decorate cupcakes. This ornament will be the first to go on the tree and I wanted to share it with you because if you read my blog then you are a part of this in some way as well! Hope you have a Happy Thanksgiving!

Only 31 days till Christmas and I am officially counting down :)

Christmas Treats

You know it's almost Christmas when people already have Christmas decorations up (ME), when there are radio stations that play Christmas music all day long, or when you go out side and just the smell of the cold crisp air makes you think of Christmas. This is the most fun time of the year. Not only do you have Thanksgiving but only a month after that you have Christmas!

I'm one of those people that starts Christmas shopping in September or October and I even start wrapping presents around that time as well. It's funny how just the months of November and December can completely change the attitudes of so many people because Christmas is just around the corner.

I wanted to share a fun cupcake treat with you that not only you will have fun with, but so will your kids, family or friends. I know I usually talk about decorating cupcakes but this time I thought I would change it up a little and talk about a fun way to add Christmas spirit when you bake cupcakes.

I started out with mix the usual cake mix and then I split the cake mix into 3 separate bowls. One bowl I left the cake mix alone so it had a white color to it. Another bowl I added about 5-8 drops of red food coloring and the last bowl I added 3-5 drops of green food coloring. Once the cake mix is mixed with the food coloring you should have white/plain cake mix, red cake mix, and green cake mix in the separate bowls. Do you know where this is going??... Yep, we are making Christmas colored cupcakes :)

As for the next part, you can play around however you would like, I started simple. I put a little of the plain cake mix in a cupcake liner and then added some red and then some plain again. I did the same thing with the green cake mix. Then I decided to step outside the box and do all the colors mixed together. I put the green and then red and then white. Once I was done filling each cupcake liner I put them in the oven to bake and they turned out so cool! I then decorated them as ornaments, snowmen, snowflakes and holly just to add a little more to the Christmas spirit. I hope you and your friends and family have as much fun with this idea as I did :)

Happy Halloween

My husband and I are having a Halloween party tonight and of course I decided to make some cupcakes and decorate the apartment some. I knew I wanted to do Halloween cupcakes, but I also knew that I didn't want to do to elaborate cupcakes because we would also be decorating and I knew I wouldn't have a lot of time.

One of the main and favorite candies of Halloween is Candy Corn so I wanted to go with that theme. I also knew that what I was wanting to do would be extremely simple but also really cute. Sometimes simple is the way to go.

I had actually bought some orange icing since it's Halloween. I found it at Wal-Mart and thought I would buy that instead of having to make my own orange icing. I then mixed my yellow icing and had bought an extra can of white fluffy icing. I then put the icing into separate baggies. This is one of the best and easiest ways to pipe icing. All you do is just spoon the icing into the baggy and cut the corner to whatever size you are wanting, and then pipe it out. It's also a very messy free way to pipe icing because when you are done you just toss the baggy in the trash and you're done.

Once I put all the icings into separate baggies I then started to ice the cupcakes. I started with the yellow and then the orange and then the white to make it resemble a candy corn. These cupcakes have more icing on them than others I have done so it's a treat for icing lovers :)

I thought I would also put a few pictures of our decorations. I love the Holidays because it's a great reason to decorate your home. I hope you are enjoying the Holidays just as much as we are! The last note I would like to leave with with is HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

It's All In The Details

So, usually my blogs are ALL about cupcakes. But I feel like I have put so much emphasis on the cupcakes themselves that I have left out one of the most important parts! Cupcake liners are often overlooked, but they can make or break the look of your cupcake. There are many ways you can incorporate cupcake liners into your designs.

You can buy some amazingly fun and beautiful cupcake liners. Of course you could always stick with the classic and simple white liner, but why not try something new? You can get all varieties of solid-colored liners and also liners with interesting patterns. These different liners can go a long way in making your cupcakes even more fun!

Here's an example. Last weekend I made some of my peacock cupcakes for a bridal luncheon. I could have easily used a simple white liner for the cupcakes, and they would have looked great! But because one of the bride's main colors was gold, I went to Michael's and found some gold liners. These really completed the look of the cupcake and gave me a product I was really proud of!

Now, not only do you have the option of solid or patterned liners, you can also get themed liners! These are especially fun and popular for holiday seasons like 4th of July, Halloween, Thanksgiving, or Christmas. You can even get Valentine's or Birthday cupcake liners! These are really good for turning simple cupcakes into fun party pleasers! You can get these themed liners almost anywhere during specific holiday seasons. I've seen them at Walmart, Target, Michael's, and other grocery stores.

The best place to get all of these specialty cupcake liners would be your local Michael's or a baking supply store. Liners may seem like a small detail, but they really impact your cupcakes and the look of your final product. Cupcake liners are a great example of the true statement, "It's all in the details!"

Sunshine & Rainbows

Sugar and spice

and everything nice

that's what little girls are made of

Sunshine and rainbows

and ribbons for hair bows

that's what little girls are made of

Tea parties, laces

and baby doll faces

that's what little girls are made of

I was asked to make 100 mini baby shower cupcakes for a lady that I go to church with. They wanted something fun, but not actual baby shower themed cupcakes. They wanted something a little more mature and bright and with a color scheme that matched the baby's bedding.

I had made these flower cupcakes a few times before, and then decided to put something else fun with it. You can't get more fun than polka dots and stripes! I was told the color scheme and started from there.

I have begun working more with fondant lately, so that's what I decided to use for the polka dots and the stripes. I need to say thanks to my wonderful husband, because I began making the flower cupcakes out of marshmallows and decorating sugar while he was so kind to knead the fondant for me. It was definitely a whole day's task since we were dealing with 100 mini cupcakes.

I started with the flowers and decided to use pink and orange decorating sugar for the petals. I thought those two colors would match the same color fondant the best. Once I was finished putting the marshmallow flower petals on the cupcakes, I added a yellow M&M for the center of the flower.

I then began working on the striped cupcakes. My husband and I rolled the fondant out really thin and cut out thin stripes of each color. One of the best ways to cut the fondant is with a ruler and a pizza cutter. I know that sounds strange, but it is true! We placed all the stripes on different plates arranged by color. I first iced the cupcakes with whipped vanilla icing and then began putting the stripes on the cupcakes. I mixed up the color stripes to make it more fun.

Lastly, I started on the polka dots. I've found out the best way to make different size circles is find random things around your house to make them. I used the top of a sharpie marker to make this specific circle. No worries, I washed it before I used it :) I cut pink and yellow circles out of the fondant to make the polka dots. I iced 12 mini cupcakes with green icing and 12 mini cupcakes with orange icing. Then I finished by adding the polka dots to each cupcake.

When these cupcakes were put together they ended up being some of the cutest cupcakes I've ever made. I absolutely love being a part of people's lives in this way. If I can put a smile on someone's face with a cupcake, then I know I have done my job well :)

Nine Little Ladybugs

My mom and my sister have always loved ladybugs. Because of their love for ladybugs, I also love ladybugs and I think that anything that has a ladybug on it is cute. Ladybugs bring about a happy side of people- especially girls who are afraid of bugs! When they see a ladybug it's completely different than seeing a roach or a centipede. I speak from first hand experience :) I made these thinking of my mom and sister and hoping they would like them.

These cupcakes are mini cupcakes. The actual ladybugs are made of fondant. I mixed the white fondant with red and black. It took quite a while to get the exact color I was wanting, but by being patient I finally got the colors I wanted. I rolled little red balls for the body and smaller black balls for the heads. Once I was done with that I stuck the heads to the bodies. I put a little icing on the heads so they would stick better to the bodies. I then drew the dots on the red bodies with Food Writer (edible colored markers). Don't worry, I promise I didn't use a sharpie :)

Once the ladybugs were finished I began piping the icing on the mini cupcakes. I cut a very tiny hole in a freezer bag and piped straight up so the green icing looked similar to grass. When I finished the grass I simply placed the ladybugs on the cupcakes and they were finished!

I sent the picture to both my mom and sister and they both really liked them. To be able to hear that they liked the cupcakes made my day!

A small speckled visitor

Wearing a crimson cape

Brighter than a cherry

Smaller than a grape

A polka-dotted someone

Walking on my wall

A black-hooded lady

In a scarlet shawl.

~Joan Walsh Anglund

Camp Scrap meets Faith Hope & Cupcakes

Last Friday night, Second Baptist Church here in Springfield held an event called Camp Scrap! I noticed a few weeks prior to this that they were in need of baked goods for the evening. So, naturally, I knew that Faith Hope & Cupcakes had to get involved!

I decided that for this event I would do mini cupcakes because that way more people could have a sample. Also, this gave me the chance to try out a couple new designs I had been thinking of. I decided to go with Ladybugs, two kinds of flowers, pumpkins, plain with sprinkles, and finally holly. After all who doesn't love a little Christmas in October...or any time of the year really :) All in all I made 53 mini cupcakes.

After delivering the cupcakes successfully, my husband and I went on a date to Macaroni Grill. But the whole time all I could think about was how people were liking my cupcakes! I consider them my children almost, because I spend so much time on making them perfect. Eventually a friend texted me to let me know that the cupcakes were a hit. They were all gone within the first hour and the ladies wanted to know where they came from. It turned out to be a great night for both Camp Scrap and Faith Hope & Cupcakes!

I can't wait 'til the next Camp Scrap comes around :)

  

Star Wars

A long time ago, in a galaxy far far away...

Just kidding! These Star Wars cupcakes were a lot of fun to make and it was my first time working with fondant. I was asked if I ever used fondant before with my other cupcakes and I hadn't, so I thought it would be fun to try. It was definitely a lot of work but a great new experience at the same time. 

I started off picking which Star Wars character I wanted to do, and I picked a few that I knew best. For each one I followed a picture to look at as I cut out the different shapes. For each color I had to knead coloring dye to get the exact color I wanted. Make sure to wear gloves, because I forgot to buy some and my finger tips were all different colors.

Let's first start with Yoda; he's my favorite! With Yoda I got a cupcake and outlined the bottom of the cupcakes on wax paper which made a circle. This would be his face. I then rolled my fondant out rather thin and put the cut out circle on wax paper on top of the fondant to follow the circle so the cutting would be exact. Once the circle was cut out I placed it to the side, and then started working on his ears. I cute out two long bunny-like ears and once they were cut out I pinched the ends of them and stuck them to the circle head. I then went back with a knife and put lines in the face to give him all the lines and wrinkles that Yoda has. I took a little left over green fondant and rolled it into a ball to make his nose and then did the same thing with his eyes with white and black fondant.

Next is the Imperial stormtrooper. I actually printed out a picture of a stormtrooper helmet so I could follow the size and the details of the helmet. With this one I would definitely suggest patience. It took me a while because of the details, but it ended up turning out really well. I cut the helmet from the paper and put in on the fondant so I could cut it out to the exact size I wanted. Once I cut the helmet out I started working on the details. I started from the top of the helmet and worked down. I first put the black line of fondant going across the forehead of the helmet. I then did the eyes and so on and so on. It was a lot of details, but you don't have to cut out all of the details. You more just have to mold and shape the small pieces. 

I think I picked a very hard subject to do for my first time working with fondant, but I definitely got a great idea of how it works and I will be using it again. But I still think regular ol' icing and melting chocolate are my favorite to work with. 

National Punctuation Day

"A celebration of the lowly comma, correctly used quotation marks, and proper use of periods, semicolons, and the ever mysterious ellipsis."

I was asked by a teacher for some cupcakes with punctuation marks so she could give them to other teachers that she works with. As first I just thought, "She is an english teacher, so punctuation mark cupcakes would make sense in her case." But then I was told that it was for National Punctuation Day, which until this point I didn't even know existed. How cool is that? One whole day for punctuation marks! They should feel special. I was never very good at English, and I'm still not the best at it. But it's nice to see that teachers are trying to teach kids the importance of punctuation, which is something I feel so many kids are never taught.

These cupcakes were so simple but they turned out so classy. Black and white are the most classy colors when put together. These cupcakes remind me of Jackie O.

All I did for these cupcakes was iced each one with vanilla icing, and then made sure the icing was extremely smooth. I drew out different punctuation marks on wax paper to follow as my templates. Then I took black melting chocolate (which they actually have at Michael's right now since Halloween is just around the corner) and put that on my punctuation mark templates. I set them in the freezer for about 15 minutes, and then simply placed them on top of the cupcakes as the finishing touch.

These reminded me that the simplest things in life can sometimes be the most important :)

Frosty the Snowman

Christmas is one of my favorite holidays. I love the colder weather and all the decorations with lights, presents, and Christmas trees. And I absolutely love shopping for presents. If I could, I would have Christmas two or three times a year- although I would probably be broke :)

These Snowman cupcakes were so much fun and made me even more ready for the holidays. For this cupcake you are going to need a mini cupcake and a regular cupcake. The mini cupcake will be the snowman's head and the regular cupcake will be his body.

First, you are going to want to ice both the mini and the regular cupcake. Then you put some chopped coconut on a plate and spin the outside edge of each cupcake in the coconut so that coconut is hanging off the sides. You want to try and not get coconut in the middle of the both cupcakes because then you will have a hard time sticking the mini cupcake to the regular cupcake and sticking the eyes, nose and mouth to the mini cupcake.

Once you have finished adding coconut to the edges of the cupcakes you then want to work on the snowman's scarf. I used a starburst for his scarf so you have many different color options that you can use. You can also add stripes and polka dots if you want to get really fun with it. I went with yellow because it was the only color I had left. I melted it for about 5 sec. and then rolled it out a cutting board until it was pretty thin. I then cut the starburst into a long rectangle and cut little lines into the end of each side of the rectangle to make it look more like a scarf. I would recommend using a pair of scissors to cut the starburst because it's really sticky and a knife doesn't quote get the job done. After I finished the scarf I went ahead put it on the regular cupcake.

Then I began working on the eyes, nose and mouth. For the eyes and mouth I just used melting chocolate but you can also use mini m&m's as well as chocolate morsels. For the nose I used an orange starburst. I once again melted it and then rolled it out. I cut a small triangle out of the orange starburst and then rolled it up and made it look similar to an ice cream cone, also I put ridges in the nose to make it look more like a carrot.

Finally, once I finished the mini cupcake I simply put in onto the regular cupcake laying on its side. And then you have yourself a snowman!

Just to leave you with a smile on your face we ONLY have 93 days 'til Christmas :)

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The Beez Kneez

I had the opportunity to do my bee cupcakes for a little boy's birthday party. I had to make 30 of them and then take them up to his school for his party that was going on at the end of a school day. I love these bee cupcakes and I think they are really cute and definitely a summer cupcake. They are also extremely easy to make and take all of a about 5 minutes make one.

Of course for these cupcakes you will need icing dyed yellow and back, white melting chocolate, brown melting chocolate and white decorating sugar. Oh and of course the cupcake :)

First, I put the two different color icings into two baggies then I cute the tips of a corner of the baggy. I first pumped the black icing on the cupcake in the three different lines and then went back and smoothed the lines out a little with a knife. Then I went back and did two yellow lines in between the black lines. Once again I smoothed the yellow icing out as well. This just made the icing look a little more smooth.

The head/antenna, the stinger and the wings are all made out of melting chocolate. For the head/antenna I drew out a template on wax paper and then followed that with melting chocolate and then put it in the freezer for it to harden. I did the same thing for the stinger as well. For the wings, I used white melting chocolate and also drew out a template in follow. Right after I followed the template with melting chocolate I sprinkled white decorating sugar on them to make them look a little more like wings. You have to do this step quickly because if you wait too long then the melting chocolate will harden and the decorating sugar won't stick to it. Then I placed them in the freezer to harden as well. Also, it is helpful to make a point or an arrow going down from the head, stinger and wings because this will help when you are wanting to stick them into the cupcake to stay. This will help them not to fall off the cupcake.

Once the head, stinger and wings were pretty frozen I took them out and placed them in the cupcake. With all these pieces it's better safe than sorry to push the head, stinger and wings a little more into the cupcake than you would think. This way they won't fall off if you are traveling with them somewhere. 

Another tip with using melting chocolate is the go ahead and turn your car on to cool it down if it's hot outside, because the melting chocolate doesn't stay frozen for very long. You will learn very quickly while using it.

The bee is more honored than other animals, not because she labors, but because she labors for others. -   Saint John Chyrsostom

NFL Football

My husband and I are huge college football fans, but have never gotten into NFL football. I feel like more people in Missouri are NFL fans than college football fans, so I was asked to make Kansas City Chief logos and St. Louis Rams logos on some cupcakes. I have to admit I had no idea what the logos even looked like. That might be bad to admit but I'm not ashamed to admit it :) You learn something new every day!

At first I didn't know where to begin. My husband and I were watching the movie Clash of the Titans, the new one (which we suggest not renting) and I got rather bored so I thought I would look up the logos and start coming up with some ideas of what I could do. I had the color of the Chiefs down perfectly but it was the Rams that I kept getting stuck on. The Navy and Gold where two colors that aren't easily made, especially the Gold from the logo. Well I ended up settling with a gold yellow color which in the end looked really good with the Navy icing that I mixed with blue and very little black food coloring.

First, I started off by making templates for the logos and made 6 Chief logos and 6 Rams logos out of melting chocolate. With the Chiefs logo I made the arrow and then went back with red icing and wrote the KC in the middle of it. With the Rams I made the logo with yellow and white melting chocolate and then went back over the white melting chocolate with the Navy icing I made. After I got done I was rather impressed with the way they looked. It was something I was unfamiliar with but I think it ended up turning out very well.

With the football cupcakes, I covered the cupcakes with green icing I had mixed together and then covered it in coconut that I had dyed green with green food coloring. I feel like the coconut gives it that grassy texture and make it look more real. The footballs are made of melting chocolate with white icing for the laces, and I just put more icing on the back and placed it in the middle of the cupcake so it was secure when we delivered them. 

The last cupcakes are the logo for Palen Music Center here in town. This logo is also made out of white melting chocolate and once those were pretty solid I put them where I wanted them on the cupcakes and then went back with blue icing I made and put it on the white chocolate. Making the Palen logo was fun, and I can definitely see myself doing more custom logos of businesses!

Elmo and Cookie Monster

The Elmo and Cookie Monster cupcakes are so cute to me and I think they turned out better than I thought they were going to. My nephew loves Elmo and so that's what gave me this idea. But then I also remembered that he laughed so hard at Cookie Monster eating all the cookies and it made me want to try and make a Cookie Monster. These were fun cupcakes to make but they also took a lot more materials.

I'll start with Elmo first. His eye are made of a big marshmallow that I cut in half and then used mini m&ms for the center of the eyes. I wanted to make his nose fun and not just a blob of icing so I thought a gumball would be fun and it of course adds to more sugar on the cupcakes which in a kid's mind is GREAT :) And as for his mouth I took an oreo cookie and split it in half. As for the icing I just dyed it with a lot of red food coloring to get it that rich red color. I also got the no taste food coloring because I had to use so much I didn't want the icing to start tasting weird. I put the cookie mouth on first and then froze the cupcake for about 10 minutes in the freezer which then allowed me to put icing on the rest of the cupcakes without it moving. Then I added the eyes and the nose and got cute little Elmo!

Now on to Cookie Monster. He turned out to be the cutest I've made so far! When I got done with him and he was just smiling at me with his cookie mouth and I had to smile back, haha :) Anyway, for cookie monster I also used a marshmallow for his eyes and brown mini m&ms for the center part. For the mouth I used a soft batch chocolate chip cookie and cut in half. I put the cookie on with a dab of icing and then put it in the freezer until the cookie didn't movie around the cupcake. Then I was able to ice it with my blue icing and then stuck the marshmallow eyes on him and this was the outcome.

I hope you enjoy these; they were a lot fun and easy to make so it's definitely something that you can do with your kids or if you babysit it would be a fun project to do with them. What kid doesn't like to eat cupcakes after they're made :)

Dumbledore's Army

I know it's been a while since my last blog post so I thought I would come back with one of my absolute favorites. I am a huge Harry Potter fan (or HP fan for others that are as well). I have two cats, one named Luna Lovegood Sweet Potato Myers and Neville Longbottom Chic-fil-a Myers, and hopefully somewhere in the future I will own a Great Dane and his name shall be Hagrid :)

Anyway, back to the cupcakes... I made these and of course my inspiration was Harry Potter. With a movie filled with so many characters the cupcake possibilities are endless. I decided to do the three main characters and of course the lightning bolts which Harry is famous for (His scar is the shape of a lightning bolt).

I started out by dying all my frosting to the colors that I needed. For the skin color I had vanilla frosting and put a little cocoa powder in it with a drop of yellow food coloring. This gave the frosting a nice rich tan color. If you want to go darker on the skin color then you just continue to add more cocoa powder. Next, I dyed some frosting black and orange (for Harry and Ron's hair). You can also get dark chocolate melting chocolate and orange melting chocolate, although a lot of stores don't carry the colored melting chocolates.

For Hermione's hair I used brown melting chocolate. I drew the hair out on wax paper and then followed my template with the melting chocolate and stuck it in the freezer until it was solid.

For Harry's glasses I just took some left over black icing and went around his eyes. And as for the lightning bolt scare I took leftover yellow icing from the lightning bolt cupcakes and put some in a baggy. Then I cut an extremely small hole in one of the corners so it piped out really thin.

I put a mini marshmallow for the noses on with a tiny amount of icing and put them in the freezer for about 15 minutes until the marshmallows wouldn't move around on me. I did this so I could ice the whole cupcake. Then I put the hair on each one. After that I went back and did the eyes and mouth on all of them as well as Ron's freckles.

For the lightning bolts, I mixed yellow dye with icing and then free handed the lightning bolts on the cupcakes. If you don't feel comfortable doing it free handed than you can draw a template on wax paper and use that as your guide. I then went back with blue icing and went around the lightning bolt for the background.

These are such fun cupcakes and they make me so excited about Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1 movie coming out in November. You can bet that I will be there with my scarlet and gold scarf on ;)

Mario Party!

So I did my first party this morning and delivered 20 Mario cupcakes. There were 5 Marios, 5 Luigis, 5 Toadstools and 5 stars. I have to say they were definitely a hit and a lot of fun! It was a late night last night staying up till 2 in the morning and making them, but it was completely worth it. I woke up at 7:30 this morning to make sure all the cupcakes were still there and in perfect condition. I think I even dreamed about cupcakes. It's so hard now a days to turn my mind completely off of cupcakes because it seem like every minute I think of another idea I want to try. Anyway, we put the cupcakes in cake boxes and delivered them to the party at 9:00am at Chuck E Cheese's.

Making/decorating cupcakes has been so much fun for me, and I would have never thought I would be able to do something like this. It definitely goes to show that if you don't try it then you'll never know if you can do it.

These cupcakes took a lot of time, and without a lot of patience and an amazing husband who helped I couldn't have gotten all these done :)

The Owl

I absolutely love Owls- they are one of my favorite animals. I have lots of owls necklaces and owl statues. I may be just a little too obsessed but I can't help it. I think just think owls are the cutest things ever. They seem to be in style because they are everywhere I look, and I'm completely ok with that :)

This brings me to my next cupcake: The Owl. This was a pretty easy cupcake to make and I got the idea from Hello, Cupcake. For the owl you need Oreos, junior mints, banana runts and black or brown icing.

The first thing you want to do is start off with the eyes which are Oreos. You can warm the Oreos in the microwave for about 5 seconds and will be easier to peel the two part apart. You should get an even amount of icing on both sides but I had a tough time with that so instead I just peeled apart two Oreo and kept the two sides with the most icing. Once you have your Oreos then you can place them on to the cupcake with some icing on the back so they stay in place.  Next you want to place one Junior mint in the middle of each Oreo. Once you are have done that then add a dot of white icing on to the Junior mint to finish up the eye.

The next thing would be to ice the cupcake. You want to start from the inside and go outward. This way your hand doesn't get icing all over it and you have to start over. You want to try and make the icing to look similar to feathers by pulling away quick. The last thing you have to do is put the banana runt under the two Oreos for the beak and the cupcake is finished.

It's such a cute cupcake and it's also something you can do for Halloween! Hope you enjoyed!

Beach Bums

This cupcake makes me wish I was on the beach in Destin, FL catching some rays and reading a good book. I went to Destin, FL quite a bit when I was in high school. I would call it my second home back then. My grandmother owned a condo down there and it was the place to be during Spring Break and Summer time. It's one of my all time favorite places!

The first thing about these cupcakes is to start with the towels. All they are, are starbursts. I heated them up in a bowl for about 8 seconds and then put them on a cutting board and rolled them out. Then cut a 3 inch x 2 inch rectangle. After that I look a pink and yellow starburst and warmed them up (separately) and rolled them out and then cut three lines from each and placed those on to the 3 inch x 2 inch rectangles. That's how you get the towels. Tip: If the lines you are putting on the rectangles don't stick at first then you can dab the back of the lines with a little water so they will stick better :)

The sunscreen is made out of starbursts as well. I just used leftover rolled Starburst and made it into a bottle shape. I put half a toothpick on the back so it stay up on the cupcake.

As for the sand I covered the top of my cupcake with a layer of icing (it's completely up to you how much you are wanting to put on there) and then dipped it into a bowl with brown sugar. It's crazy how much brown sugar looks like sand! If you want there to be a mound of sand then you and pinch some with you fingers and put however much you want on your cupcake. Once again that step is completely up to you. Tip: The brown sugar is a little messy so just letting you know that if the cupcake is bumped or gets knocked over then brown sugar will more than likely go everywhere, but it's an easy clean up with a wet paper towel.

It's fun to make cupcakes that bring back great memories. These did exactly that for me!

Pretty Please With A Cherry On Top

These cupcakes are so simple, but I feel like they would make a party so much fun! They remind me of mini birthday cakes for someone who's celebrating their birthday but not wanting everyone to know how old they are :)

With these cupcakes all I did was put cream cheese icing in a baggy. Then put a few pieces of scotch tape on the corner of the baggy that I was going to cut a hole in to pipe the icing (this helps the baggy to be more stable as you ice your cupcake) then squeezed the icing onto the cupcake in a circular motion building the icing up. To me it looks a lot like self serve yogurt when you pull the lever and the yogurt goes into the cup or cone. I added sprinkles to some or you can go classy and keep in plain, that's completely up to you. I also added cherries on the top of the cupcakes but if you were wanting to celebrate someone's birthday then you could add candles instead.

These cupcakes looked so good I almost didn't even want to eat them. I marveled at how adorable they were, like a kid looking at puppies through the window at a pet store. I continuously said to my husband, "Aren't these just adorable?" Then I had to come back to reality to serve them to the people we were eating dinner with :)

Have fun with the decorating. Add whatever sprinkles you want to the tops of them. It's your masterpiece so have fun with it and make it your own.

Black and White Affair

These cupcakes were a lot of fun to make and they didn't take a whole lot of time. They would be good if you were wanting to do something for a party and only had an hour or two to prepare. Also with these cupcakes you can custom decorate them and be as creative as you want. Some of the designs came from Hello, Cupcake and others I came up with by myself. With these, you don't really have to follow any type of directions because you can make them however you want and do what you like. Also you don't have to stick with this particular color scheme. You can mix up the color and do a certain theme such a green and red for Christmas or black and orange for Halloween. The main thing is to just be creative with it. Another good thing idea is to make at least 12 cupcakes so if you mess up one then you have plenty of extras.

I went to the candy store where I live and picked out different black and white candies. I also went to Michael's and picked up some white and black decorating sugar, which is what the half and half cupcake and the bullseye cupcake are decorated with. I also used some melting white chocolate and made my own candies.

Feel free to explore and have fun. If you get frustrated then put it down for a few minutes and find something else to do so you don't ponder over it, and then come back to it later. That's helped me quite a few times in the past.

ROLL TIDE

I grew up in Tuscaloosa, AL and went to college at the University of Alabama. So I guess you could call me an Alabama Football fan from birth! Now I live in Missouri where college football is taken seriously, but not near as seriously as it is down SOUTH.

Since football season is just around the corner I decided to make a few cupcakes for inspiration. I knew that I needed to have crimson and white icing, and some how come up with a grey elephant since that is Alabama's mascot (BIG AL).

I also wanted to have some decorative cupcakes surrounding Big Al since he was going to be the center of attention. For these I decided on white iced cupcakes with red M&M's on the top for decoration. Also in the decorative cupcakes I wanted to do the Alabama "A." I covered those cupcakes with red icing that I dyed, and then made the "A's" with melting chocolate. I froze them for about 15 minutes and then placed them in the middle of the cupcakes. I know these may seem like small details or less important cupcakes, but they are very important- so don't be lazy! I've found that it's just as important to spend time and energy on the less elaborate cupcakes because they are like the background for your centerpiece!

Finally I got to the elephant. I dyed icing with very little black coloring to make grey, and also died the white melting chocolate to get the same color grey as the icing on the cupcake. When dying the melting chocolate you have to work quick because it starts to harden very quickly and it gets frustrating. Trust me I know (and so does my husband) :) For the trunk and the ears I used the melting chocolate that I dyed grey and then froze them as well. For the tusks I used white melting chocolate and put those in the freezer too. Once those hardened I put the elephant together and I absolutely fell in love with it.

These are probably my favorite cupcakes so far! I definitely put my roots in them and it almost feels like home! So all I have left to say is Roll Tide Roll!

It's a me, Mario!

So, the other day I got a message from a friend who asked me if I could do Mario cupcakes for her son's Birthday Party. As I read the message my brain began to think on all the possibilities of how I could make these cupcakes. I knew that I needed several different things for the cupcakes, so I decided on making Marios, Luigis, Toadstools, and Stars. I decided it would be best to start with Mario.

I looked up a few pictures of Mario to get an idea of how I was going to make his face. First I started with his nose. It's extremely big and round so I automatically thought of a marshmallow. Then I moved on to his hat. "What in the world could I make his hat out of???" I asked myself. Then it dawned on me...What about a cookie!? Ideally, I would have used Nabisco Famous Chocolate Wafers to shape the hat. But of course, I went to all the stores here in town and couldn't find the type of cookie I was looking for. So then I decided I would bake my own. This way they could be the exact thickness and size I needed anyway.

After getting those two things (the nose and the hat) down everything else just came into place. I then started mixing colors with icing for his skin, mouth, and hat. I made his ears, mustache and eyebrows with melting chocolate. Finally I was finished with Mario! (Luigi is virtually the same as Mario, except with a green hat and an "L")

I used the cookie concept when I made Toadstool, except I used a little bit bigger piece of cookie (cut in half). Then I iced the cookie and the cupcake to look like him. And then finally the star was the easiest, I simply iced a star pattern onto a cupcake.

The lesson I learned is that I feel like if I am going to do this as a hobby then I have to put in the time and effort that it takes. You get the best ideas when you sit down and draw stuff out. Even if you aren't the best artist it will help to have something in front of you to look at. All in all it was a fun project and I'm excited about the way it turned out!

Cupcake Love

Hello and welcome to Cupcake Love!

I've always loved baking, and just a few weeks ago I went to B&N and came across a book called Hello, Cupcake by Karen Tack & Alan Richardson. It was filled with a lot of ideas for decorating cupcakes, and so I decided to buy it and give it try. It only took one batch of "Shark Attack" cupcakes and I was hooked :) Since then I have been baking and decorating cupcakes like crazy!

I decided to start this blog because I wanted to be able to share my cupcake journey with friends, family, and also anyone who might be interested. I hope that you will find this blog interesting and FUN! And I also hope that it inspires you to be creative as well! You never know if you can do something until you try :) The name "Cupcake Love" came because I hope that by baking and decorating cupcakes I can show love to people. Thanks for reading and be sure to check back soon for fun pictures and cupcake stories!